Top 5 Dr Dre Production Techniques

Dr Dre is a legend in Hip-Hop, music production and popular culture. You can instantly recognize one of his beats when you hear it. They have the perfect vibe to make your head snap. Many aspiring producers can learn a thing or two from some Dre.

Here are 5 Dr Dre production techniques to help you improve your game.

1) Learn Mixing & Mastering

Dr Dre was a DJ first, but contrary to popular belief, he didn’t immediately go into making beats. Instead, he became a sound engineer, fascinated by all the buttons and knobs that make all the subtle adjustments to a song.

This is probably the most important contribution to why Dre’s beats sound so crisp and clean all the time. He knows how to professionally mix and master a track, which requires a good set of studio monitor headphones and even better ears.

2) Keep An Open Mind

Dr Dre credits the fact that he listens to everything as the reason for his longevity.

“I listen to everybody’s shit…Even RnB, I listen to classical music sometimes, I listen to heavy metal. I just listen to everything…really I listen to the wack shit more because I want to know what not to do. You know, the stuff that’s not selling. It’s easy to pick up a hit record and know what people are buying.”

It’s often easy to tell that Dre’s music is influenced by other genres. The strings, synths and whistles played out in catchy riffs, chords and melodies are a constant reminder of this.

3) Don’t Listen To The Critics

While it’s easy for music artists and producers to allow their work to be influenced by the critics from the media and peers, Dre doesn’t let allow people’s opinions sway his creativity.

“I think people are limited because they’re very well influenced by people that’s around them or people that’s in the media. You see somebody criticizing something, you’re not gonna do that. I don’t think like that. I’m only gonna do what I like.”

This is a tough but important rule, and you have to stick to your guns otherwise what you produce won’t be from your heart, and it becomes a formation of someone else’s ideas. You won’t reach the status of being an individual producer that way.

4) No Creative Conflicts

One of the reasons why Dr Dre is so successful as a producer is because he doesn’t try to change the creative ideas of the artists he works with.

“I try to get inside of the head of the artist I’m working with. The record has to be them. I won’t approach an artist and say “Ok, this is the way I think your record should be”. I just try to make what they’re bringing better.”

This kind of attitude has made stars out of Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Eminem among many others. Each and every artist Dre has a significant collaboration still retains their own unique style even though the production is by the same man.

5) Perfectionism

Dr Dre is a perfectionist. You can hear it in his records were everything appears flawless. This is one of the reasons why he only releases albums once every few years, and his latest album The Detox is yet to drop after many years of waiting.

He expects perfection from whomever he works with too. The rappers, singers and musicians he works with will tell you this. Dre would often get them to record their verses over and over again until everything is flawless. This means hours upon hours of recording time.

“Make sure that your word is the last word. That way, you don’t play the blame game or anything like that. If it comes out hot, it’s on you. If it doesn’t come out hot, it’s on you.”

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